Chapter 3 - The Shadow in the Corner
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Trevor’s grip did not loosen. "You don't make demands in front of my investors."
From the shadowed alcove at the far corner of the restaurant, a heavy leather chair scraped quietly across the dark hardwood floor.
Elias Carver rose slowly into the dim light.
Everyone in Cleveland knew his name, though sensible people rarely spoke it above a whisper in public rooms. Judges quietly sidestepped his legal inquiries. City council members became extraordinarily polite whenever he stepped into a room. Men who bragged about power and violence grew strangely hushed whenever his black sedan pulled up to a curb.
Elias walked slowly toward the table, adjusting the dark cuff link on his charcoal sleeve.
He did not call out. He did not pull a weapon. He simply watched Margot with dark, calculating eyes, keeping his distance so the choice remained entirely hers.
Margot felt the heavy weight of Elias’s presence in the room, but she kept her focus squarely on the man holding her wrist.
She leaned in closer to Trevor, her voice dropping into a razor-thin whisper that forced the three nearest investors to strain their ears to listen.
"If I have to ask you a third time," Margot whispered coldly, "I will explain your East Bank drainage numbers right now in front of every single investor sitting at this table."
Trevor’s face instantly drained of color.
His eyes widened in a quick, terrifying flash of panic—a flicker of pure fear that vanished almost before anyone could register it.
He released her wrist so fast his hand looked like it had been burned by hot iron.
Margot saw the fear.
Elias Carver saw it too, his dark eyes narrowing slightly in the shadows.
May you like
Across the table, Briana Voss’s satisfied smile vanished into a tight, anxious line.
Margot took one step back, smoothed the front of her blazer, and walked out of the private dining room without looking back once.
